Hannspree XV32 GT 32in LCD TV - Hannspree XV32 GT

Summary

Our Score

6/10

User Score

Review Price free/subscription

There is one curiosity to report among the connections, though; separate digital and analogue antenna inputs. Most TVs just have one antenna input, simply passing the signal on internally between the digital and analogue tuners, and it's hard to see why Hannspree couldn't follow the same tried, tested and, let's face it, simpler path.

Maybe Hannspree would argue that once you've got a digital tuner, moments when you might want to use an analogue one are limited, and so making a buyer choose between the two (unless you go to the trouble of getting a split coaxial cable) is no big deal. But it still seems a wholly unnecessary complication to me.

We guess we should also point out that the XV32 GT does not, unlike most of its Freeview rivals, sport a CAM slot, meaning you can't add Top Up TV. But we don't suspect this will bother too many of you!

Moving in to the XV32 GT's onscreen menus, points of interest include plenty of backlight adjustment flexibility, a selection of picture presets that are actually quite usefully calibrated for a change, and a 1-to-1 mode. This latter feature, for translating HD sources to the screen on a pixel for pixel basis, seems a tad bizarre given that the TV is 1,366 x 768 natively rather than the 1,920 x 1080 favoured by pretty much every UK HD source. But we guess it could come in handy with 720p outputs on upscaling DVD decks.

Not surprisingly we approached the XV32 GT's pictures with a healthy dose of scepticism. But while it's certainly no high-performance classic, neither is it nearly as rough as we'd frankly expected.

Colours, for instance, are surprisingly bright and rich, rising well to the retina-burning challenge presented by Sky News with all its attendant logos and fancy graphics. The same colour situation also serves it well with console games.

Pictures are surprisingly free of noise too, with even standard definition sources from the digital tuner generally looking clean and artefact-free. HD and standard definition sources both look decently detailed and sharp, as well, without being affected by grain or overstressed edges.